RLTIC Chapter 02

​Chapter 2

The Beginning Was Nothing Special (2)

 At the exact moment Beatrice Winter jolted awake, Erich von Schwert also opened his eyes.

It was the soft purring of a cat that roused him in the pre-dawn azure light.

His dark blue eyes were perfectly clear, without a trace of drowsiness, as if denying he had been asleep just moments before.

His gaze shifted with deliberate precision.

And the cat meowed again.

"Must you wake me at dawn's first light every day, Louis?"

Erich von Schwert finally rose, fixing his feline companion with an exasperated look. Seemingly oblivious to its master's disapproval, the cat continued grooming its pristine white paw with dedicated focus.

Louis ignored him completely and began grooming.

The sight of that red tongue flicking methodically only amplified his irritation.

What could he do? Such was the fate of a cat's servant.

Sighing, Erich slowly got up. The thought of another day beginning was thoroughly exhausting.

As always, he first made his bed, then washed up briefly before retrieving his sword.

Louis, who followed him to morning practice with fifty-fifty probability, had apparently decided to stay in the room as there were no delicate paw steps tickling his ears today.

Unsurprisingly, the pre-dawn training grounds were empty.

Five years had passed since the Third Human-Monster War ended.

In other words, peace had settled over the human world for five years.

It was enough time for even the elite knights of House Schwert, who once risked their lives on the frontlines protecting humanity, to grow slack.

Channeling spiritual energy into his sword's tip, Erich regulated his breathing.

His already keen senses grew even sharper as all manner of stimuli poured in.

He quietly sorted through every sensation that reached him.

The sound of ants laboriously moving grains. The scent of crushed clover. Leaves falling through the pre-dawn twilight. And.

Woong.

The sword hummed.

The blade that had ended thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of monsters, seemed to find this peace as awkward as its master.

Erich tapped the handle soothingly while rubbing his ear with his other hand.

For someone accustomed to the sound of massive beasts trampling humans, the acrid smoke of magical fires, and forests of lightning-scorched corpses...

This was truly a devastating silence.

While five years might have been enough for others to wash away the traces of war, it wasn't sufficient for him.

This was neither surprising nor regrettable.

Erich von Schwert, the Sword Saint and one of humanity's two great heroes, raised his sword.

A frost-laden strike lashed out at the world.

Anyone capable of seeing his movements would have been struck by their flawless precision and power.

Speed. Balance. Weight. Strength. Technique.

Every element displayed the mastery of one who had reached the pinnacle of perfection.

Erich only stopped after repeating his practice until he was satisfied.

Walking back to his bedroom through the darkness, there was naturally no sign of dawn yet.

His unremarkable morning became remarkable when he emerged from washing up.

After preparing Louis's breakfast, he began buttoning his shirt properly. If only he hadn't happened to glance at the mirror, then.

Erich froze.

A rather strange image had appeared on the mirror's gleaming surface. Even after blinking several times, the anomaly remained.

Erich took a light step toward the mirror. Stopping directly in front of it, he examined his chest very, very carefully.

Amarkhad appeared near his heart.

[Beatrice Winter]

The name of his longtime comrade and former lover had suddenly manifested on his skin.

This is enough to even makeghosts weep.

With growing bewilderment, he traced each letter from the elegant 'B' to the flowing 'r', examining every curve and line.

The handwriting was unmistakably hers.

To an outsider, it might have appeared as if Beatrice Winter had playfully signed her name across his skin in a moment of intimacy.

Erich's expression hardened as he traced the letters again, his touch clinical and detached.

It refused to fade. Of course it wouldn't.

After spending 10 years as partner to a genius mage, one naturally gained some basic knowledge about magic.

Erich easily recognized that the mark suddenly appearing on his chest was 'the result of a spell.' and a powerful one at that.

The real question waswhat kind of spell would leave such a mark, and why...

In conclusion, it was irritating.

With sharp, aggressive movements, he finished buttoning his shirt, concealing the mark from view.

The name that had appeared so suddenly, its owner, everything about this situation—it all grated against his carefully maintained composure.

*

Through the soot-laden path, a figure in white moved with unwavering purpose.

Her striking appearance wasn't merely due to her pale garments.

Her hair was so brilliantly white it made her clothing seem dull in comparison—pure as fresh snow and just as striking.

Against the dark backdrop of the ruined forest, each strand seemed to capture and amplify what little light remained, creating an almost ethereal effect.

With her ash-gray eyes completing the picture, Beatrice Winter appeared more like a being of pure light than flesh and blood.

She strode through the 'Forsaken Forest' with deliberate steps, her stark appearance making her an obvious target—though she showed no concern for this fact.

The forest, barely wrestled from monster control by humanity's forces, remained in a state of decay that spoke of deeper corruption.

Each gust of wind sent black branches crumbling to ash, their forms dissolving like shadows at dawn.

Acrid winds carried particles of soot and ash through the air, but Beatrice simply flicked her fingers, creating a transparent barrier that repelled the pollutants attempting to infiltrate her lungs.

With another precise gesture, she knelt and pressed her fingers into the soil.

"The contamination remains."

Beatrice rubbed the soil particles between her fingers, brooding deeply.

"It doesn't seem to have been purified."

She knew well what this meant.

The murky energy flowing from the'Abyss'had always followed a pattern: polluting nature first, then mutating animals into the monsters that had plagued humanity for so long.

Thus humans sought to seal the Abyss, while monsters tried to stop them.

In other words, the long war spanning decades was a clash between species with opposing wills.

And five years ago.

Humanity became victors of the Third War by finding and killing the monster that held the'Key to the Abyss,'successfully sealing it.

"No matter how I look at it, this is definitely contamination."

Beatrice's fingers snapped sharply in the air, her mind racing through the implications. The continued corruption could only mean one of two things:

Either the monster that became the'Key'had been reborn,

Or some monster had managed to survive even that brutal war.

Beatrice assessed the likelihood of the latter. If any monster had survived in this'Forsaken Forest'...

The<Blue Fire Bear>seemed most probable. They had been the strongest species after all.

Beatrice wrinkled her nose slightly and pulled out a coin from her pocket. After tossing it in the air and catching it several times, she narrowed her eyes.

A noise had caught her keen hearing.

A noise, in this forest?

Raising her tension to the maximum, Beatrice smirked. Bloodlust seeped thickly from the corner of her red lips.

If even one <Blue Fire Bear> remained alive, she could enjoy quite an exciting hunt.

The <Blue Fire Bears> surely hadn't forgotten Beatrice Winter.

Just as she would never forget those cursed bears that had massacred the young mages of the Ivory Tower.

The woman's form shot out like an arrow as she dwelled on her grudge.

But when Beatrice arrived at the source of the sound, she could only furrow her brow.

"Hmm?"

The sound escaped her lips as she crossed her arms, staring down at her feet. There, struggling pathetically, was a gray rabbit—.

Its ears were grotesquely large for a common rabbit. And those teeth...

It was a rabbit in the process of being a monster.

"What on earth is this?"

As if trying to answer her question, the rabbit made a small "khing" sound. This cute cry made Beatrice even more dumbfounded.

Good heavens, a rabbit monster.

Among all the monster’s humanity had encountered until now, there had never been one that originated from a small herbivore.

Monsters had always mutated from predators, birds of prey, large mammals, or venomous animals—in other words, animals that could effectively kill humans.

For example, even the monster that became the 'Key' was a <Helmeted Elephant>.

As Beatrice mentally reviewed years of accumulated knowledge, the coin between her fingers suddenly sprang to life, spinning in the air of its own accord.

- Tower Master.

The telepathic voice of her secretary, Maximin, cut through her thoughts.

"What is it?" Her tone remained professional despite the interruption.

- We've received an urgent message from House Schwert.

"What does it say?"

- Apart from urgently requesting your presence, there's nothing else. The reason for the request appears to be highly confidential.

"Hmm..." Beatrice's expression shifted subtly. Only one person at House Schwert would dare summon her without explanation.

She lifted her gaze from the spinning coin to survey the pitch-black forest around her.

Perhaps it was the overwhelming darkness of her surroundings that brought him to mind—the man who carried shadows even in his azure eyes.

As memories of her longtime comrade surfaced, Beatrice found herself ruffling her white hair in frustration.

They were 'perfectly' separated lovers, having achieved that rare state of being truly perfect 'former lovers.'

Maintaining a strictly professional relationship without showing personal feelings.

For Schwert, who had always maintained such careful distance, to summon her like this... there must be a compelling reason.

"Very well," she replied with characteristic directness.

"I'll return now. Tell the elders I'll head directly to the Grand Duchy without stopping at the Ivory Tower."

- Understood, Tower Master.

Beatrice bent down and grabbed the rabbit. She put the struggling animal in her pocket and began quickly making her way out of the forest.

Her next destination was Virka in the north.

More specifically, the Grand Estate of House Schwert, whose imposing silhouette dominated the northern landscape.

*

Exactly three days after receiving House Schwert's message, Beatrice arrived at the Duke’s Grand Estate.